This message was edited on
October 21, 2008 at
03:25:30 PM by Gary Thomas
15th annual Trophy Cup to end Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway season
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA – October 21, 2008…The 2008 racing season at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway will officially come to a close this weekend with the first ever three night running of the annual Trophy Cup on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The 360 Winged Sprint Car event has grown to be one of the biggest and best on the west coast and an extremely talent packed field is set to go once again to compete for part of the whopping $112,500 purse at the 15th edition of the event, which will be billed as the Tribute to Howard Kaeding.
The Trophy Cup’s unique format will be a bit different this year with the addition of the extra night of racing, but all the great racing you’ve come to expect at the event will be business as usual as some sort of larger than normal invert is featured during all three nights of racing. Everything will lead up to the 50 lap Saturday night main event that will be totally inverted based on points acquired up to that point. The Trophy Cup also benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the organization will be presented with another check on the front straightaway this Saturday night.
With defending Trophy Cup champion Jason Meyers not being able to attend this year it will mean that San Jose’s Tim Kaeding comes into the weekend as the most recent winner of the event. Two seasons ago Kaeding used a charge from 18th to second while driving the Rod Tiner Racing No. 83 to the overall victory of the Trophy Cup, his second career win in the event. This weekend he’ll be looking for his third Cup title as he wheels the potent Roth Motorsports No. 83jr and goes into it fresh off a pair of impressive charges with the World of Outlaws last weekend. "TK" has had much success at the Trophy Cup over the years and in addition to his overall point wins in 2002 and ‘06, he also finished runner-up in 2003 and won the Saturday night main event in 2005.
The winningest driver in Trophy Cup history is Campbell’s Brent Kaeding who will be looking for his fifth win in the event this weekend. The 13-time King of California won the Trophy Cup during the first season it was held at Thunderbowl Raceway in ’05 and also finished fifth in overall points last season. “BK” picked up all of his other Trophy Cup wins at the now defunct San Jose Speedway with those victories coming in 1996, ’98 & ’99. The driver of the Al’s Roofing Supply No. 69 captured the Pombo/Sargent Classic at Thunderbowl Raceway earlier this year and also won the Ocean Speedway 360 title for the second season in a row, which included winning the Johnny Key Classic in late August.
Two-time King of California Jonathan Allard has never won the Trophy Cup, but comes into the weekend after having a very solid last part of the season. After winning the Golden State Challenge title for the second time in his career, the Chico driver came back in early September to score a third place finish at the World of Outlaw sanctioned Gold Cup Race of Champions. He then followed that up with a charge from 14th to second at the Cotton Classic in Hanford, before claiming his first ever Fall Nationals victory at the Silver Dollar Speedway with another charge from the 13th starting position. Last weekend Allard drove his Williams Motorsports No. 0 to a pair of the top 10 finishes with the Outlaws, which included an eighth place run at the Thunderbowl. His best career finish at the Trophy Cup came in 2005 when he ended the weekend third in overall points.
One of the heavy favorites coming into the weekend is surely Grass Valley native Brad Sweet who has had a fantastic first full season in the USAC wars driving for Kasey Kahne Racing. Getting back behind the wheel of the Rod Tiner Racing No. 83 sprinter at the Trophy Cup, the 22 year-old will look to continue the great season that the combo has put together in limited starts this year. Sweet drove the 83 machine to a weekend sweep at the Silver Dollar Speedway in July and also scored runner-up finishes on the opening night of the Mini Gold Cup, the finale of the Silver Cup and made the main event during the final night of the Gold Cup Race of Champions in September. Last season Sweet finished sixth in the final Trophy Cup standings.
This year’s California Civil War Series champion Sean Becker is set to make his first Trophy Cup start since 2005 this weekend aboard the Scott Miller owned No. 2sb sprinter. The Oroville racer has put together another fantastic year as he became the first driver in history to possess all three of the big Nor Cal sprint car titles, which include a Golden State Challenge Series championship in ‘05, a Silver Dollar Speedway title in ’05 and now a Civil War Series championship. Becker is arguably the most underrated driver on the west coast and this season won four times with the Civil War Series, three times in weekly 410 action at Silver Dollar Speedway and also captured $5,000 at the Mark Forni Classic in weekly competition at Placerville, as well as winning the annual Silver Cup at Chico in March.
The Trophy Cup last year marked Los Angeles driver Tyler Walker’s debut aboard the SC Motorsports No. 24 mount, but unfortunately it didn’t end well as he was involved in an accident during heat race competition on Saturday and suffered an arm injury. Walker has come back strong this season however, as he finished runner-up in the Golden State Challenge Series point standings and has claimed eight overall victories this year. His on the edge driving style and willingness to take risks is something that’s needed for success with the kind of format that is used at the Trophy Cup, making him a heavy favorite. Walker has had a very good year at the Thunderbowl as well with him picking up a win at the track on May 10 and also scored a pair of second place finishes at the 1/3 mile clay oval this season.
Bixby, Oklahoma’s Shane Stewart finished third in the Trophy Cup standings last year and comes back to the Trophy Cup this season after recently reuniting with the Doyle’s Harley Davidson team after spending much of the year on the World of Outlaw tour. Stewart had a spectacular ending to last year as he picked up victories at the Knoxville 360 Nationals, the Skagit 360 Nationals and the Fred Brownfield Memorial challenge, in addition to a runner-up finish at the Short Track Nationals after getting passed for the lead on the very last lap. Following a parting of ways with Roth Motorsports in early September this year, Stewart hooked back up with the Doyle’s team and promptly won the Brownfield Memorial for the second year in a row at Grays Harbor Raceway.
Another driver that is always tough to beat in the 360 ranks is Medford, Oregon’s Roger Crockett who comes into the Trophy Cup after having another successful season aboard the Henderson Motorsports No. 7n. The former Civil War Series champion led all 30 laps en route to victory earlier this year in a Golden State Challenge event at the Thunderbowl and also finished runner-up during the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in June, marking the second straight season he’s finished on the podium at the $25,000 to win event. Last year Crockett set fast time and finished fourth in the Trophy Cup standings and is also coming off a strong run last Saturday night against the Outlaws where he won the dash and finished seventh in the feature.
Civil War Series runner-up Kyle Larson is coming off an impressive heat race victory against the World of Outlaws last weekend at the Thunderbowl Raceway and will be one of the strong contenders at the Trophy Cup. The 16 year-old captured a pair of Civil War wins this season and had a number of other strong charges from the back of the pack throughout the year, which is always crucial in the Trophy Cup format. The driver of the Vertullo Racing No. 83v also had an impressive charge from 24th to fifth just a few short weeks ago at the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals in Chico.
Other drivers expected at the 15th annual Trophy Cup will include former event champions Tommy Tarlton of Easton, Ronnie Day of Salinas and Craig Stidham of Fresno, as well as other top drivers including Dover, Missouri’s Danny Lasoski, Germantown, Tennessee’s Sammy Swindell, Grand Forks, North Dakota’s Mark Dobmeier, Campbell’s Bud Kaeding, San Jose’s Brad Furr & Randy Hannagan, Auburn’s Andy Forsberg, Loomis’ Kyle Hirst, Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs, Chico’s Stephen Allard, Sacramento’s Willie Croft & Herman Klein, Escalon’s Myles Bishop, Fremont’s Shane Golobic & Brent Bjork, Princeton’s Mason Moore, Placerville’s Andy Gregg and many more.
The pit gate at the Thunderbowl Raceway will open up at 10am Thursday morning with the drivers meeting scheduled for approximately 3:30pm, hot laps at 4:30 and qualifying scheduled for around 5:45. Pit passes will be $35 on Thursday and $45 on Friday & Saturday. People will also have the option of purchasing a three-day pit pass for $110 and all who keep their wristbands will get into Friday’s teriyaki bbq & Saturday’s spaghetti feed for free. Both the BBQ and Spaghetti feed will be held from 12 noon to 3pm on Fri & Sat respectively with both events featuring live music. The auction to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation will also be held on Saturday.
Front grandstand General Admission Bleacher tickets will cost $20 on Thursday, $25 on Friday and $30 on Saturday. Reserved Grandstand seats will be $25 on Thursday, $30 on Friday and $35 on Saturday. Tickets will available through the track office by credit card until noon on Thursday by calling (559) 688-0909. After that the Thunderbowl Raceway box office will open at 1pm with tickets being on sale by cash only. On Friday and Saturday the box office is scheduled to open at 10am with tickets being on sale by cash only as well.
All your Trophy Cup info, including format information can be found at http://www.trophycity.com/trophycup/
The Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway is located on the Tulare County Fairgrounds at the corner of Bardsley and K Streets in Tulare, California. For a seating chart, directions and more log onto http://www.thunderbowlraceway.com or call (559) 688-0909
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